Congress claims delegation of its leaders attacked by 'BJP goons' in Tripura

The opposition party also claimed that police personnel accompanying the delegation did 'nothing'

A fact-finding team of MPs and MLAs from the Left parties and the Congress, which arrived here on Friday to look into post-poll violence in Tripura, was attacked in Sepahijala district, police said.

No one of the eight-member team was injured in the attack in Nehalchandrangar, Assistant Inspector General (AIG), Law & Order, Jyotishman Das Chowdhury said.

Two-three vehicles with leaders of the Left parties and the Congress on board were vandalised by unknown miscreants, he said

“A delegation of MPs, MLAs and local leaders of the Left parties and the Congress made an unscheduled visit to Nehalchandranagar in Bishalgarh today. During their visit, sloganeering was done and their vehicles were attacked by some miscreants. The police escort team responded quickly and rescued members of the delegation safely.

"No injury to any person was reported but two-three vehicles have been damaged in the attack," the officer said.

Also read | Cong, Left MPs to visit violence-hit areas of Tripura from Friday

One person has been detained in the incident, he said.

"Raids are on to identify and arrest other miscreants. Senior police officers are there at the spot”, he said.

The CPI(M) said that the joint team of the Left and the Congress were visiting various violence-hit areas of West Tripura, Sepahijala and Khowa during the day.

“Once the delegation, comprising CPI(M) MP E Karim and Congress MP Abdul Khaliq and AICC general secretary Ajay Kumar landed at Nehalchandrangar market, they were attacked by miscreants raising slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. One vehicle was severely damaged, while two more cars were also vandalised," senior CPI(M) leader Rakhal Majumder said.

“Our members were saved as they shifted promptly from there”, he said, adding that Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee president Birajit Sinha and CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury, who won the election, were also part of the fact-finding delegation.

The team is expected to stay in the state till March 12 after which it will submit a report and the issue will be raised in the next Parliament session, which will begin on March 13, CPI MP Binoy Viswam had tweeted on Thursday.

The CPI(M) condemned the attack on the delegation and demanded arrest of all the miscreants immediately.

At least 20 shops were set on fire in the post-poll violence at Nehalchandranagar, a border village of Bishalgarh subdivision, on Wednesday night.

Most of the post-poll violence cases were reported from Sepahijala and Khowai districts.

Chief Minister Manik Saha asked the police to take stern action against the miscreants in order to maintain peace and tranquility.

The Tripura assembly election results were announced on March 2.

The BJP-IPFT government returned to power in the state for the second consecutive term as the saffron party bagged 32 seats in the 60-member assembly, while its ally the Indigenous Peoples' Front of Tripura got one constituency.